When does the Pat McAfee Show premiere on ESPN? All you need to know
Pat McAfee parlayed a successful 10-year NFL career into becoming one of the top sports media personalities. The 36-year-old's "The Pat McAfee Show" has quite the following, over 2.2 million subscribers on YouTube. Now, the show is making a major move to ESPN.
The show will make its debut on the network on Sept. 7 with the first two hours airing on ESPN, ESPN+ and ESPN’s YouTube channel. Hour No. 3 will be aired solely on ESPN+ and the network's YouTube channel.
Besides the show, McAfee also will continue his analyst position on the network's "College GameDay" and host different telecasts of ESPN's college football broadcasts.
The former Indianapolis Colts punter said in a statement, when the announcement was made in May, how honored he was for the opportunity:
"We are extremely honored that ESPN is blessing us with this opportunity to be a part of the next chapter of the ESPN family. We do not take that lightly and are going to work hard to make sure this is a success.
"All parties involved agree the time has come for a bunch of sports stooges in a Thunderdome in Indiana to sprinkle in some fun and celebration of sport as well."
The show was launched in 2019 with Pat McAfee, former NFL linebacker A.J. Hawk, and others like Boston Connor Campbell, Ty Schmit and Tone Digs.
Its premiere forced some minor movements to ESPN’s schedule from noon-2 p.m. ET. SportsCenter will move from its traditional noon slot with an hour edition at 2 p.m.
Pat McAfee's ESPN deal: How much will ex-Colts kicker earn on new deal?
Pat McAfee’s deal with the network is for five years and around $85 million. The $17 million per-year deal allows McAfee to maintain control over all aspects of his show.
One such aspect is if he wants to have non-ESPN guests like NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport on the show. The network will get 230 fully produced shows per year that it can sell advertising against.
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post asked McAfee why he left FanDuel to join ESPN. McAfee said:
"FanDuel was our show's exclusive SportsBook partner. SeatGeek is our exclusive ticketing partner. 5 Hour energy is our exclusive energy shot partner.. etc… etc.. We were lucky to be a partner of theirs for a lot of GREAT times.. it was genuinely just to make our life easier behind the scenes.
"There’s still a chance we’ll be doing business with each other down the road. FD will always have success. A lot of GREAT folks there. I’m thankful for them.”
We'll see how Pat McAfee and the company will fare in the coming weeks with the show on ESPN.